i posted this yesterday in my big thread but haven’t gotten a response. I thought maybe it hit buried so am posting a new thread fit this topic. Hoot this is ok.

So, I saw more bugs (food mites) in my tank and kinda panicked and decided to clean out my tank . Not ideal as I had 2 crabs down, but I worried the bugs could be munching on my crabs.

3 are good now, we’re exploring yesterday and settled in well, but 1 was molting. He’s pretty far along, but his big claw and a few small legs of the exoskeleton were left. I isolated him in a 10” x 5” container with moist eco earth, a little bit of sorghum moss, a few shells, and fresh water. I dug a shallow pit and put him in it with his exoskeleton fragments and bee pollen. He’s moved to the shells and is staying there. I removed the shell from the water dish when I changed it today and I added cucumber and strawberry today too. The container is cracked and I open it for fresh air a few times a day.

Is this ok? What else should I do? It’s so cramped because I wanted to give him substrate to dig down into. Does he need salt water now or should I wait a few days?

Hello Food mites won't harm your crabbies. So cute how he/she is "hiding" in the shells! Love it! If crabby is as active as he/she looks - add him/her back into the crabitat! Just dip him/her in the fw of the crabitat so he/she doesn't smell like molt. You can also offer the exo in the food dish.

If he/she isn't really active - and is just hiding bc you opened the lid - Just continue to provide exo (rinse off in dechlorinated fresh water and put in a little dish so it isn't dirty), protein, calcium, honey (bee pollen is fine too!).

Truly blessed to have incredible creatures, wonderful friends and my amazing family in my life!! I'm very thankful & grateful for all of them! www.thehealthyhermit.com

I wasn’t sure and thought maybe they’d eat exoskeleton or big the crabs. Good to know they won’t fit the future!

I think I’ll keep him in iso for a while longer. He’s mostly sitting tucked into his shell, but he hasn’t dug down at all. I didn’t see him come out to eat or get water last night. I’ll see what happens tonight. Thanks!

Just a quick update in case anyone is interested. He looked really good last night. His color was darker and he and was more awake so I put him back in with the others and he joined back in nicely. He was out and about a bit last night, was face to face with the other medium size crab (who I adopted just before this guy went down to molt). They seemed to get along ok, just checking each other out, but tonight he’s gone back down. Hopefully the others won’t bug him.

I put the remainder of his exoskeleton in the food dish as suggested along with some beans, lentils, and bee pollen, dried worms, and royal jelly. Tonight I added olive oil and fennel. I’m trying to stick to mostly dry foods for a little bit to keep the mites from coming back as suggested.